CAF Forget About Nelson Mandela

I’m starting to get mixed feelings about the Confederation of African Football. Though I’m loving the 2008 Africa Cup of Nations and admire the confederation’s determination not to bow to Sepp Blatter and Premier League pressure and move the tournament, they’ve been making more than their fair share of screw-ups lately.

First there was the African Player of the Year debacle, where Didier Drogba was first offered and then denied the award because he couldn’t make it to the ceremony. Not cool.

Today there’s a bit of an outrage over CAF’s use of the apartheid era South Africa flag on an Africa Cup of Nations posters (right.) The flag in question hasn’t been around since 1994, when Nelson Mandela was elected, apartheid was sent to the dustbin where it belonged and the flag was replaced. But it appeared on CAF’s 2008 Africa Cup of Nations promotional poster, including in Kumasi where South Africa were playing.

I doubt there’s anything malicious behind this. Benni McCarthy appears on the poster, and the Blackburn and Bafana Bafana striker is hardly a symbol of apartheid. And he wasn’t even in the South Africa squad, so looks like this is all down to someone at CAF not doing their job properly.

All this poses interesting questions about the future of the Africa Cup of Nations. The quality football is there for all to see, and I’m already looking forward to Angola 2010. But as the tournament gets bigger and is seen by more and more of a global audience, CAF are going to need to pay more attention in coming years and get the little things right.